Austin, Texas suicide pilot
 

It seems like a man angry at being handled by the IRS for several years committed suicide and wrote a manifesto suicide note.

The Manifesto Of Austin Texas Crash Pilot Joseph Andrew Stack

At first I was skeptical that it was real because I doubted anyone had the balls to actually end their life over this, but it looks real to me. I guess we wait and see if it's a hoax.

I don't think there is any reason to think it is a hoax, though he also had marital issues and set his own house on fire, as well.

I have a friend at the Statesman. I also know Lee Leffingwell personally (I used to work as a political reporter in Austin, 2005-2006). He informed the city that it is not a hoax, and that two bodies were found deceased. Everyone is pretty sure it was an isolated incident unrelated to terrorism. My former coworker, at the Statesman, said his own sources concur.

I'm an Austinite, so I got reports pretty quickly. I'd say this hit close to home, but that cliche seems in bad taste when it really is your hometown...

As more and more comes out about the details of his tax issues, his level of frustration and despair become more understandable. Though taking it to this extreme was certainly off the scale of reason.

I don't think "having balls" has anything to do with it. This guy was a home grown terrorist and suicide murderer. No different than the IRS building back in '95.

Seriously, he should of just paid his taxes and dispute the amount of tax or law of tax like everyone else. Not paying your taxes is just stupid. Complaints and dispute through the proper channels like everyone else and through free speech is the only way.

Looks like he complained and dodged various tax for 25-30 years. It seems like he just had a screw lose or two... obviously in hindsight.

Just happy he didn't survive by some miracle.

And of course that's a very convenient outlook to have. He's just a terr'ist. That's that. Speculate as to what "looks like" and be done with it because he criticizes the government. I don't condone what he did, but much of what that text says is absolutely true. They key point being that the gov't is run by corporations who only give themselves raises and business enhancements just like their purchased congressmen; most egregious instance being the bank bailouts that taxpayers have paid for so the executives who played casino can eject with their golden parachutes.

I not minimizing this.
I'm glad you don't condone his actions.
I should elaborate more on my previous post:
"Complaints and dispute through the proper channels like everyone else and through free speech is the only way" <add> that you can redeem your liberty and stop the Tyranny of government. Just keep voting them out of office. If they break a law, then hold them to it. If the law isn't clear enough, amend it; get it changed; add some proper regulation if need be.

Sure some get away with it... but they gamble on getting caught and some get caught and do hard time.

There will be never-ending debate on how the government handled (and continues to handle) the economic crisis. However the mortgage bubble and credit fiasco has plenty of blame to go around to the consumer living beyond their means. Throw in some tyranny and here is what you got.


Of course this mess is not cut and dry, else there would be an instant solution.

the evil nnnnnnnutjob:
"
"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
"The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed."
"

The greedy one was this domestic terrorist; he is the one who didn't think he was getting what he wanted or getting justice on his own, so lets murder some government drones to send a message.
I find it ironic that the guy burned down his rather expensive house, and owned a plane to fly into the building.

i condone his actions and applaud his veracity and his courage to take a stand and tell america that their laws and their fing country can go to hell by shoving a plane up it's ass.
congrats to you good sir, I will remember your cause.

lives need to be spent to get a message across .. i will get crap for this, but i totally agreed with him on every aspect.
seriously.. i am profoundly gratuitous to this man.

You are damn right you are going to get crap for this. He murdered innocent people, and surely hoped to murder more. How in the world of sanity can you condone his actions?

By condoning this you are saying more people should murder innocents for the sake of their political beliefs.

For shame.

I kind of see where you are coming from... I think it would have been better if he had aimed for the top 3 levels of a new York skyscraper .. none other than the top
i aspire to be as noble as this man
and in saying that, i will now be blacklisted by the cia, and jf's server will be hacked in order to get as much info about me as possible... i'm just glad i macspoof and may or may not have given false info signing up :D get pwned gov't!

Being paranoid with no evidence is a sign of insanity.

you do realize that at one point during the bush admin. our gov't had the ability to take you to gitmo, hold you indefinitely, not give you causation or a trial, and were not expected to inform relatives or anybody else where you had been taken to
i think i have the right to be a little paranoid ... just a tad
lest i forget about the massive amount of domestic surveilence .. ahem illegal ahem.. huh, what.. i didn't say anything

Can`t you agree with someone`s opinions on something, but not the actions they took?

Saying you are supportive of someone killing a bunch of innocent people, who aren`t involved at all, to get his point across is - quite honestly - disgusting.
Do you really think anyone will take him and his manifest seriously now? Do you think he`ll ever be thought of as anything other than a crazy guy? I don`t. If you support what he was saying, you should be extremely upset that he did what he did because now people who say similar things are going to be lumped into the crazy bin with him.

No matter how great or right a cause is, if you do something incredibly horrific in an attempt to draw attention to it - nothing good is going to happen.

Where is the nobility in killing innocent people? That is the opposite of noble. That is cowardly.

Congrats... I haven't been shaking in rage like this since 9.11

i took his message seriously ... and you wanna know what?.. the only reason it got to me was because he killed himself in such an outrageous way... you know this story didn't even break msn @ least last i checked .. could you imagine how many people would have heard about it if he had killed himself by shooting himself in the head or running his car off the road?... it would have been a local story and nothing more...

This is a major news story in the US. What are you talking about? Right now it is the top story on the "US & World" section on MSN. I even saw it on the Japanese news.

I agree, he killed himself in an outrageous way, and if people want to kill themselves I don't think it is any of my business. However, when you take lives from other people, that is selfish and cowardly.

and if you want to call it cowardly.. let's try to fathom that word... my understanding is that it is to brave all odds in pursuit of a goal even if it means knowingly meeting your end.
he took the hard road for years with appeals to no end.. then he took the even harder road... i for one cannot imagine killing myself... can you?... please.. take a minute before you start calling it the easy way out to consider how you would feel sitting in the cockpit of a small Cessna as you aimed your way towards a lump of glass and steel and concrete knowing you would never be able to drive a car again, or listen to music... or flirt with a cute girl again.. knowing that as you careened into the decadence of "human achievement" that you're existence would be cut off like a vhs tape when the rewind cycle is completed
would it be so cowardly then?

and as for taking human lives.. how many lives do you think you've taken over the years by supporting the american way... how many superfluous wars have we invented.. how many small arms have we dealt to conflicting countries to gratify our incestuous need for money and control?

He crashed his plane into a building full of people for no one but himself.

His decision to do such a thing is not political martyrism, but personal escapism, that sadly took the lives of more than himself.

He didn't like government policies...but that doesn't give him or anyone license to kill people.

I don't think Avatar should have won the Golden Globe for best picture. Does that give me license to fly my plane into the Hollywood sign...or James Cameron's house? Of course not. The entire notion is ludicrous.

You joke about flying planes into buildings, especially New York Skyscrapers, so lightly.
Take into account that some people are still a bit touchy on the issues as many people from all nationalities lost their live in and '01; not to mention the terror in '95.

You surely would be beaten within a inch of your life in an actual public setting anywhere in the states spewing this trash; a half an inch in the North East.

Even if you didn't know the fact about this news in Texas, your above statement alone shows your stupidity.

What a punk you are.

Dress up in a clown costume and stand in the middle of the street if you really want the attention.

you know what?... 3000 people died 8 years ago and you people just can't let go of that...

just to put this into perspective for you... do you want to know how many innocent civilians in iraq have been killed because of our war efforts?
around 80,000 ... huh... wierd... so should i not make any jokes with sand in them?.. or guns?.. or bombs?.. or tanks?.. or aircraft?... because these all contributed to innocent deaths... how bout tax dollars?.. those contributed a great deal

Don't know if it's funny or not.

Guanabee | Tax Time! The Joseph Stack Flash Game

Now you too can be Joseph Stack and ram into an IRS building and listen to the Soviet Hymn.

Yes, you should not make jokes about killing people.

And no, people are not going to forget about 9/11.

If you have a point, I would state it. It sounds like you are making excuses and backpeddling now.

does sound like i'm backpedaling doesn't it.. but that's what debate is isn't it?.. establishing a case.. waiting for a counter-claim and then countering that to perfect any deficiencies in your original argument / modifying it if necessary

At this point I don't know what you are supporting or not.

Do you still support the idea of taking innocent lives for headlines?

Do you still support murder/suicide as a political statement?

Do you still think he should have flown his plane into the top floors of a New York skyscraper?

If so, please explain.

i don't like the fact that he had to kill people to get his message out, but i am glad he chose to do so anyway...
i could never support killing people unless it is in self defense .. however, whilst i might not truly support it, i might be apathetic to it
yes to the skyscraper thing.. because then he'd be killing off useless ceo / top level execs who sit in their corner offices all day and pretend to be better than jack who's 50 floors down working the tiles and plaster work on a remodel of some office so that some mid-level exec can pretend to be more important than him as well.

i guess what i am saying is i don't want to support murder.... but sometimes i kind of have to .. sometimes it's the only viable option

So... All those normal people who just happen to be working near or on the same floors as the CEOs should all die with them?

Umm... I think you`re making some strange assumptions about the way a company is structured. Top level people don`t just sit around on the top floors all alone.

Which contradicts your next statement:

Which contradicts your next statement:

<Insert Face Palm>

So you support it, are against it, and are apathetic to it. Awesome.

And then you contradict yourself back to the beginning:

So if someone is the CEO of a company they are automatically all of the stereotypes you describe....and deserve to die?

I am all for corporate responsibility but statements like this are nothing short of immature.


And this is one of those cases? A guy that doesn't want to pay his taxes should have the right to murder innocent people?

If this is justifiable, then what is a case where murder of innocents is not justifiable?

I recommend you think really hard about endorsing death wishes on strangers and stereotypes.

they are working for the machine.. and the machine must be shut down... and let's face it, if your working on the top floor of a new york skyscraper in any position... you're not scraping by... the secretaries that work in those buildings probably make 3-4 times my pay for doing menial tasks

you right... i was thinking about the easy way out.. but that's not very courageous of me... instead of mass executions in which innocent people get killed we should focus our efforts into killing off people one by one... sniper rifles will be handy.. so will knives .. and shiruken and poison... and we'll have to assemble a task force...

I see, so the secretary of an executive deserves to die because she landed a better job than you?

How does it work? Everyone making over 50,000 dollars a year is fair game for murder?

"The machine"....please. Shut down "the machine" and what happens? And don't answer that question before you answer the other two.

If you are joking it isn't funny. If you are serious I may reconsider Clint's request.

Does any company out there qualify as a "machine"? Because they pretty much all function in the same way. All these "machines" should be stopped, destroying tons of jobs, and removing services and items currently taken for granted in the world?

So they deserve to die for this? For making more money than you?

not particularly..
in a perfect world that line would be determined by me... but i'll have to leave that up to the guys like joe stack

and if the machine were to shut down pollution would stop as we would move inevitably towards choas at first and then band together resulting in microcomunism that the natives had going for them.

Maybe if everyone shared your view. But that is not the case.
No, in reality, someone else would just recreate the "machines".

entropy baby, entropy... natural law of the universe to go to higher disorder ...if the machine were to be recreated it would just get torn down again.. our world will one da turn into dust particles floating through space or pure energy (most likely the latter)

It is easy to talk spacey theoretical concepts, but tell that to Vernon Hunter's family. That is the name of the man this coward killed in his suicide attack.

Vernon Hunter was not a lawmaker or politician. He was not a part of the machine. He was the kind of man that offered Gatorade to trash collectors on hot summer days.

Here, read more about him and tell me he deserved to die:

Family, friends gather at home of missing man

well, the system chose for him to die, he was really old already (68 i believe), and had he grown up in africa he would already have been dead for 30 years
sure, sucks when nice people die.. agreed.. but we're all going to die .. we just believe we have a right to life that is taken away when someone dies of "unnatural causes" = anything other than death in sleep @ old age... this is not the case... we are gifted with ability to learn, with life in itself... it's not a right and can be taken away by forces beyond our control @ a moments notice.. if not that guy with the plane, a person swerving into oncoming traffic because she.. or he was texting.. one way we're all dead

i thank some higher power (may there be one) every day i'm alive.. and expect not to be the next

Wrong. Joseph Stack chose for him to die. There is a word for that: Murder.

So since he was 68 his life was less valuable? It isn't a senseless murder because he was of a certain age?

Excuse me?!?!?

Besides the racist undertones of this statement (since he grew up in Africa, he was lucky to be alive anyway, is what you are saying) you are also devaluing his life based in statistics. I asked you to look at the person you are supporting the murder of (not like I expect you to ACTUALLY do that)

Backpeddle. You said he deserved to die. Prove it.

What is this BS? You are endorsing murder. Mass murder. If we do not have a right to live, then what rights do we have?

Why? This statement contradicts everything you have said up until now.

I think you are just trying to be interesting and anti-establishment, but what you come across as is shortsighted and shallow. Like your murder-suicide hero, you have only one person's interests in mind: your own.

I don't think you (or anyone) could possibly truly believe thie things you are saying, so I will assume it is for the sake of being...whatever. Half of it contradicts itself anyway, so it is clearly thoughtless musings and not anything you really have spent time focusing on.